##VIDEO ID:r## very interesting so I'm I'm not expecting any substance of conversations tonight put them in order of my priority policy you've already done that it's in order of my priority for revie my understanding is that that sot so obviously TR was the [Music] worst I'm looking at him like what the hell is she talking about all right good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunberg select board today is Tuesday August the 6th 2024 please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for in accordance with the requirements of open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded in broadcast live over the lunber over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook Facebook page and will be uploaded to lenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda list all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law we're to begin this evening with board comments and I'd like to start with one public comments and under public comments we have board comments I'd like to start with one a little lengthy serving on this board uh has been challenging to say the least uh it took me almost a year to understand the cycle of the board another year to feel more confident and see opportunities for improvement and it wasn't until the third year that I thought that I could actually contribute to meaningful change for me the exceptionalism of our nation starts with the shared recognition of the supremacy of law and the secured right for every indiv idual to decide their own destiny government is here to do those things at must it regulates when we as people intersect our own existence with that of others government aside from education is here to do the least not the most those things we can't do better ourselves being elected is quite an awesome experience in and of itself but I have said often and much that power is something we hold not something we have it is given to us in trust and is temporary as a member of this board it's not prudent to speak ill of our staff during these meetings it is also imprudent to directly conflict with the town manager during a public meeting the town manager is our employee responsible for nearly all other employees it's bad form to in the first instance offer a critical opinion that could have been offered privately every public and private praise that I've offered the former Town manager has been sincere and genuine and I've offered a lot of positive feedback Kudos Heather is an amazing person a truly remarkable human being absolutely phenomenal in nearly all critical aspects of the role in which she served but I've been on this board for 5 years and in my opinion folks things are not looking good we have employees who are doing The Impossible each and every day they're holding all these strings together and we are in large part failing them the problem isn't just pay the problem is culture and change must start with this board we don't have a Personnel committee they all resigned the Sewer Commission will be down to two people at the end of the month we haven't had a full-time L use director for quite some time he quit no Public Safety clerk we don't have an IT director the assistant to the business to the Sewer business manager quit and were short 51 hours a week in the assessor's office while it's a struggle to hire qualified and skilled Municipal Employees generally this level of vacancy isn't happening to this extent everywhere it's happening here here I have filled calls from many board members complaining about response times and processes volunteers unwilling to russle F feathers and make public complaints but frustrated all the same between 20 and 30 Town employees have called me or met with me in the last two years alone unsolicited with complaints if you live on or near water and had an action before the Conservation Commission in the last few years to build a deck or make some home repairs or improvements you know that it has taken too long to get the paperwork you need due to critical vacancies additionally over the last year some staff have showed up to work for weeks at a time without having a working computer phone systems have been down too frequently and we may very well be on the cusp of not being able to pick up trash around town for my lens it's not great being an employee of the town of lunenberg our employees love their jobs they are called to serve but many don't feel valued many don't feel seen and the opportunity to contribute to policy creation and Direction just doesn't exist we lack a collective vision and Collective mission in effect we have become the abusers in this abusive relationship and the only time that we ever really interact with employees outside of scheduled updates on finances is when we negotiate Union contracts and even then no member of this board sits at the negotiating table we send the town manager and our lawyer I believe that every contract we signed during my tenure was after the previous one expired our employees want to provide residents and businesses with the best service they really really care and so we need to do right by them everyone under 45 has been taught in a Collaborative Learning environment less rows and columns and more small groups the educational model for the last four decades has increasingly Incorporated a lot of project-based learning and team activities that engages Learners across disciplines our schools teach citizenship encouraging everyone to make the changes they want to see in this world my focus rather exclusively for the remainder of my term will be on being a better employer chain starts at the top and it must start with this board we need to implement those best practices that Foster a collaborative work environment and that includes mandating climate surveys that routinely check the pulse of our Workforce and make necessary improvements at my insistence for 3 years one was done a few years ago but the results were not shared and the summary and the summary we received indicated that only 25% of employees had confidence in the management of the town we need to implement an after action review process in which we include critical feedback from everyone involved in executing so that we are positioned for constant Improvement we need to mandate a formal employee recognition program we need to require the town manager to implement the annual performance reviews that the charter dictates and create department and individual goals we need to close the gap between policy creation and execution and engage our staff directly before implementing policies that impact them I urge us to create a ratification process that mandates collaboration by key stakeholders during the hiring process and that at least allows us to have insight into the process for the last 5 years I have ratif hiring decisions without any insight into job descriptions who applied selection criteria onboarding processes or exit interviews we receive a bio blurb usually within the hour before the meeting we don't need to get into the weeds but we need to provide more meaningful oversight as the chief executive body and Foster a and Foster a structure in which we actually have vision and mission statements and work to support it I acknowledge fully that these thoughts have been restated and relayed in many forms and in many ways privately for many years with increasing frustration we need to be a local government in which people can offer the gifts and talents that God gave them and the gifts and talents they have mastered we need to maximize individual abilities for the benefit of us all we are not that government today but we can get there additionally I recognize that the decision by the majority of this board to approve a Public Communication policy was Hasty and in bad form I proposed the policy and supported it from time to time members of this board are exposed to information that is confidential or that if publicly stated could compromise the town that policy was birthed as a response to confidential information it was uncomfortable but it achieved its desired result enforcing a long enough delay for awareness of a specific liability to be understood and mitigated as such I asked the chair to add it to tonight's agenda so that the policy can be repealed and I will vote to repeal it and that is it I have a statement to or a comment um I'd like to address a few matters that have been raised um in recent meetings first I missed the last meeting due to a medical issue well I'm not obligated to share this information I think it's important for the rep the public to remember that we're all human um and sometimes things arise that may prevent us from attending meetings my absence was not related to child care my children who are aged 20 and two in middle school they're well supported by my friends and family allowing me to the flexibility to serve on this board mentioning my children during the interim Town manager interviews was relevant as I have children in the school system providing a beneficial P perspective to this board regarding the meeting minutes and the use of AI in their preparation our minutes are prepared by the executive assistant the town manager and sent to us for approval I was unaware of the AI involvement and I do fully support Annie our EA in her diligent work every new role comes with the learning curve I'm committed to learning and being a productive member of this board concerning the policy that we passed a few weeks ago I understand the Public's concerns having worked in the police department I recognized the importance of policies and protocols after reviewing board policies I believe the recent vote was invalid due to existing policy violations we should res resend review and discuss this policy before taking another vote stepping onto this board as a new member has been challenging especially with the evident divide I ran for the board because as a staff member I was concerned about many issues in town I'm committed to continuing to learn being a voice for our staff and voting based on my independent views thank you thank you do we have any additional comments from the board this evening no I have two first I want to uh recognize the uh first meeting of our interim Town manager Carter terenzini and I want to welcome him to the board that was quite a welcoming already uh you showed really uh interviewed well and your references were very glowing uh and I welcome you board in a very important time in the town's history or period And I know although it is a temporary position it is a critical position as we transition and having served as interim Town manager in many other places you know the importance of that transition so I I welcome you aboard and I offer you any assistance and uh help you may require while making sure to stay out of your way most of the time to do your job especially since it's going to take a while for you to to get the lay of the land as it as it were so welcome and the second one is a lot less light-hearted which is that uh last night was the fourth of five town band concerts one more next Monday uh again if you haven't come before they're at 7:00 on Monday in front of the t uh TC pasos uh school and it's really a great bit of Americana and it's really a lot of fun and it's a really wonderful uh Community event of which there are unfortunately fewer and fewer Community style events so I encourage people to come thank you do we have any public comments this evening from the public Miss lizia Ronda lissia 181 Reservoir Road um this is related to the the first topic that was discussed in board comments but I do find it funny that the board comment that was just made sounded an awful lot like someone who was seeking a human resource position instead of a position on the select board um my my comment is I think we are fooling ourselves if we think spending $155,000 on a firm to fill the town manager position will make any difference we cannot buy enough lipstick to make this position attractive taking corrective action is the best and first step toward the position becoming more attractive there was a specific process in place for the select board to decide whether or not to renew the town manager's contract the proper channel would have been to conduct the town manager's annual performance evaluation which should not have been ignored the results of the evaluation were to be reported in an open meeting ignoring the evaluation absolve the former chair from having to provide one single objective reason for not wanting to renew the town manager's contract the town manager had the right to expect objective standards would be the only standards applied in determining her fate fellow members had the right to expect to have equal input into determining the town manager's fate and the public had the right to expect decisions regarding the most powerful position in the charter would be evaluated according to OB objective standards and discussed in an open meeting the current Vice chair took independent action to circumvent the entire process I think one could reason reasonably conclude ignoring the town manager's evaluation and going discussing these matters in private um was intentional he was responsible for listing a genda items for the select board at the time when the evaluation should have occurred and now we all know he did not want to renew the contract itself the corrective action we need is for the vice chair to be removed from this board this is not the problem on this board is not disagreement it's people operating outside the rules that's the way I see it I think discussion debate disagreement these things are all they bring it to a higher level if done correctly and you know going back to the comment at the beginning of the meeting you're allowed to criticize people you just have to do it in a way that's not personal using objective standards it's not that difficult I think it's what I'm doing right now so I think he should be removed from the board I think we should be demanding his resignation or pursuing a recall election thank you thank you Miss Lio you have a comment Mr Jeff I didn't want to interrup hi everybody John Bowen 162 Highland Street I I live there with G Marie price uh unfortunately Mr noo isn't here so I'm going to read my statement as though he is here um there's watch the meeting I'm sure he will I'm sure he will so I just want to make sure that this is to address to every individual here at the board and we're Miss old isn't here Mr Vice chair I may need an extra minute and a half or so to be able to complete what I have to say please I'll begin with you uh Mr chair who is not here Mr nzo in October 2022 uh Mr nzo said that he volunteered and quote fell in love with this little town how sweet so tired of hearing this as a qualifier seems to be that everybody that you appoint to a board says I love Lunenburg that's why I want to do all these wonderful things well let me tell you something as a mother Miss Moore okay loving your children alone does not make them successful does it so therefore loving lunenberg does not make lunenberg successful does it and that should never be a qualifier but many boards have passed including your Cemetery commission and other boards and employees I love this I love that take that out of your speech love is not the answer I'm tired of hearing it Mr NOA was nominated in 20123 moves here in 2022 he was nominated at caucus and select and subsequently elected he's a software engineer and officer in the National Guard how that happened I wonder I won't ask if you don't tell we are not fit by any measure to be uh alone uh a loone member of this select board nobody is fit to be a lone member this is a board a recall is definitely in line it needed in play which I heard just recently here as well as in conversation that this has occurred or is in the process of recalling a number of different members here Mr jeffes I want to thank you very much for your phone call on last Wednesday not last Wednesday when prior to discuss my comments made at that meeting that I had made this should have been the chairperson Mr Jeff not you that speaks for itself on that note since policy is a guideline here's your policy this is your policy it's very difficult to tear because there's so much stuff in it don't you ever call out me or any other citizen in this town about your policy and how this is the town's policy since your policy can be adjusted and managed and maintained at any point in time by your discretion you are a disgrace all of you who voted for 2.13 I promise you tell me this is policy and we will be at War voting for 2.13 was to present Town manager was to prevent the town manager from releasing a press release that could possibly land the town on the hook for a possible lawsuit or other issues and circumstances we don't know the facts of those as you explained Mr Jeff we don't know the facts because there are privy conversations that nobody has a right to know because those are protected between employee and employer which is rightfully so however okay we also as Citizens call that a whistleblower and you prevented a whistleblower from speaking you attempted to circumvent the process and you Mr Jeff Miss Amanda Moore and Mr nzo should be recalled Miss Moore even though I agree with your desire to make lunenberg a better place for its employees your vote on this policy clearly shows the abuses you suffered in town at the hands of this town Administration as an employee I am empathetic to that and understand exactly what that means to be oppressed in what you want to do for your good work that you tried to provide to this town however you are a liar which you corrected tonight you corrected that tonight when you recanted your vote for 2.13 I had to adjust my statement Nothing is Stopping you though in the future from ever proposing an amendment that you would have to retract as you did tonight okay you can stand for what you believe in for why you got elected you support employees in this town then you should have done so with refusing 2.13 miss m key Dr m key if I may Thank You for Your Balanced deduction with all matters shortly I will I'm concluding Mr Alonzo I reviewed years of minutes with you on this board sometimes you went with the good old boys club over the years and sometimes you're not but you've always come around in Full Circle and I believe people change and I believe that adjustments happen and I appreciate that that you have been a balance you've provided wisdom and knowledge to this town and anyone uh you know uh can see the red and white difference okay and come to those conclusions now let's talk about me I moved here in 2020 my father when my father-in-law died with his daughter j marie price I never spoke a word until I first put my time in as a resident here my background people whisper in the quiet Halls of government right Mr Jeff but the background is this I came from a blue calla home I was a member of a Civil Air Patrol okay I was a life Scout which I connect with a lot of people in that regard I was a police explorer I was accepted in the Marine Corps however obviously something happened and I ended up on a different path okay I was an OCS candidate Mr Jeff however just because that occurred why do I love anything except for America in its process in this process okay I support the law the Constitution not some candidate for office I will say that this is hard and I am not worried about reputation okay I speak from my heart I also speak that the truth is what we need to hear from this board about the realities of what's going on in town we are in financial disrepair the select board as a recall is definitely in measure but it needs to be appropriately applied and I think you'll all agree okay not everybody agrees to that Mr Bowen I want to thank you for your time you asked for an additional minute or two two you had an addition three did May I conclude just real quickly I think we have some additional opportunity toward the end of the meeting for you to make additional point then I'd like to say that you're speech this today your speech that you gave today was political speech and not free speech because as a member of the government you have no speech you are political individual speaking on behalf of the government when you speak and therefore the speaking that comes from this board including any other member here is a political speech on behalf of the government not behalf of the people regardless of what it is that you say Thank you Mr thank you Mr Burton hi George Burton 39 Courtland Circle I just wanted to you know make some comments you've KNN I've been down here multiple times um very frustrated with the town seems like a lot of people are some of the comments I've heard about Manda um I don't agree with honestly Mr Bowen um talking about a woman with three children I don't think that's very appropriate I think you guys try to do a good job there's probably some of you that have been manipulating the others I want to you know kind of apologize or and and condemn Mr Alonzo for stepping up last week and and really you know kind of giving your thoughts about the problems here and and it's probably a hard thing to do to another select board member I feel the same thing everybody here tonight is pointing at Mr Jeff I have a big problem with an individual he's he's lied to me he's told me multiple things he's switched on me this guy is a problem he's lost his soul and it needs to stop he's caused a lot of problems for me and my family emotionally physically and financially we're going to get to the bottom of it and I just wanted to kind of say to all of you Mr Alonzo it was great to hear you step up last week and I I listened to that after I left it was very good to hear that um but we know there's a lot of problems here with Mr Jeff you lost your soul you really did and like one of residents said last week your three minutes are up it really are you should step down you really should step down before you cause a real problem in this this this NE in this town we moved here 20 years ago the first 10 years were great for us when we brought up a situation that we brought to the town manager three years ago our problems got much worse okay you were involved Mr Jeff and we pretty much 100% have a feeling of that you turned 180 degrees on us a lawyer that you've told my trustees and the homeo associ that are abusing us that have charged us and and extorted US $20,000 have gone to attorneys that you told me were represented by your firm that that lawyer then calls you and tell tells you that you're lying against me you you make up some little comments about that that guy told me and my life my wife we will put our hands on my mother's grave and tell you he told us that he represents your firm you told me that's a defamation there's no defamation if you're trying to disassociate yourself with somebody that's telling me you got a big problem because that alone is not defamation on its own it's not defamation trying to associate you with someone if there's a problem if that person did something and maybe you're trying to disassociate yourself with that individual and that's where that's going but a couple other things I just wanted to mention Town resident here last week said you know and I think this is really something you guys got to think of vote for the people from your heart right I think that's a very good thing that that individual said another comment made by one of the staff our Water Commission a couple months ago maybe a month ago when it you know it's kind of a sad story I I I I don't know the whole background of it but I came into a meeting here and I see the guy has to fight for a budget for a future water right we're sitting here and he says we need to get our sense of our community back I think we're all saying the kind of the same thing here we need a little town community we moved here 20 years ago because of the small community we wanted to move from a city and get out of the city and raise three daughters that we could have a stable home for have them come back from Christmases when they're in college unfortunately that's not going to happen for us because we can't stand this town anymore okay when my last child is out of school we'll probably move it's disgusting what's happened to us it's hideous and we're going to put an end to it and I apologize for any of you that may be taken a manipulation from this individual and I'm going to leave it at that and I think you all know that you that what the residents are saying are completely true and honest and thank you for stepping up and I know it was a very hard thing for you to say and probably do but Amanda again hang in there I think some things that are being said about you you you know children don't worry about that you you you you just hang in there I've gone through it I've been lied about so forth you you'll be fine and just hang in there because I think you'll do very good for the town and I think we need some younger folks and and seeing and that grow up here and and you know really taking care of the town and I respect that and I thank you for stepping up myself so thank you thank you Mr Burton do we have any other public comments Paula Paula Bertram 312 Townson Haba Road I served on this board for 12 years I worked with Mr Alonzo and I value those years it's a tough job and I want to thank each and every one of you for doing it I want to welcome the interim Town manager uh welcome to lunenberg unfortunately this is probably not the best Vue this evening um but I did see your interview and I and I believe you're going to do a good job and and thank you for for your efforts um I'm appalled at some of the statements that I've heard tonight people don't understand what's involved in this position it's not simply sitting at a table and making decisions it's doing the research it's all of the additional meetings it's all of the extra time it's easy for someone to sit back and say what someone should or should not say put yourself in that position if you feel that strongly and you can verbally attack individuals who are volunteering their time put your money where your mouth is this some of the comments that have been made tonight are completely inappropriate they are slanderous at a minimum and people should be ashamed of themselves thank you thank you good evening everyone uh kristos ladas 49 Maple par go ahead speaking as president of the local 5369 of lunenberg professional firefighters so I'm here to comment tonight on the topic of play appreciation that you discussed at your last meeting while I don't disagree with this concept it needs to be done the right way the fact of the matter is employee morale is at an all-time low in this town especially at the fire department in a nine-member full-time roster myself and my membership have been ordered to cover unfilled shifts 30 times this year equaling 374 hours this is an addition to the over thousand hours of overtime that the N nine of us have willingly worked this is not only outrageous it's downright unsafe we're burnt out the biggest contributing factor to the amount of for shifts is our awful schedule now this should not come as a shock to anybody this has brought up every contract cycle negotiations and the fire chief brings it up every year during his budget presentation when he explains where we are unable to recruit experienced people the town has done nothing to fix this and now we're paying the price causing each of us to reach our Breaking Point with no one in sight if you really think that showing up with coffee and donuts is magically going to fix the issues without discussing them then this board is completely out of touch with reality that solution is about as useful as the employee newsletter if you're serious about fixing morale and showing appreciation to the town employees then we'll sit down with you and have a cup of coffee while we discuss the issues and develop Solutions but if you're not willing to have the difficult conversation and commit to fixing the issues that I personally believe that you should focus your attention elsewhere thank you thank you Chris do we have any other public comments from the public this evening all right hearing none uh and I will note that the Mr nuo who's not here uh prefers for me not to enforce time limits on public comments as I previously did as chair um and so we uh had a little bit lengthier of a time there I'm going to go ahead and Skip Communications from other boards and oh oh that's why you're here all right I was going to push it back to the appointments let's go ahead then to Communications from other boards Paula Brum and I'm here as a sewer business manager for the town of lunenberg last week I had the opportunity to work with with Randy Mercier who's the individual contracted to address the munice issues we've been experiencing Mr Mercier is trying to determine if some of the problems we're experiencing are environment related he would like to know who configured the server was it done in-house or by munus um or SL Tyler Mr Mercier has never seen some of the difficulties we're experiencing in any other community for instance when doing a Refresh on training last week the CPU for the server was 100% at 100% and munus became inoperable for all departments for many hours refreshing training is a routine practice basically you're taking the backup from the previous evening and putting that data into training it should not affect production and it should certainly not Peg the CPU at 100% since June 4th the utility billing account inquiry has not worked the absence of this functionality greatly increases the time it takes to perform routine functions this problem occurs across the entire network in add in addition to investigating the server configuration Mr Mercier strongly recommends that the town invest in an on Prem service contract the first quarter sewer bills were scheduled to go out on August 2nd after completing the bill run in training Mr Mercier and I discovered that many of the bills were once again wrong we were able to determine that data is pulling from the wrong field and a ticket has been opened with Tyler's support and they are the last update that I got today was that they are working on it when I first took the position of business manager I streamlined the billing process which used to take two weeks to 1 to two days since the implementation of the new munus upgrade almost a year ago not one bill run has been correct not one endless hours have been spent manually correcting bills and trying to troubleshoot with Tyler support billing now consumes the majority of my working hours at the expense of other work until the bills are corrected by munus I'm not going to be putting labels on 300 bills again the first quarter bills will not be sent as you know as an Enterprise account the sewer department is entirely reliant on user charges for Revenue this situation is absolutely unacceptable and must be resolved immediate action needs to be taken I assume there'll be an opportunity to talk about aror funds later on in the agenda is that correct okay then I I won't take the extra time now to do that but as you can see nothing's changed except we're paying a consultant who's telling us what we pretty much already know now one of the first questions that selectman Moore asked when we presented was do we know what the real problem is and the answer of the time was it's munus well apparently we still don't know what the real problem is do we have a server issue the question was asked last Thursday we still don't have an answer so it's not going away it's getting worse and I'm I'm at a loss as to what to do so once again where do we go what do we do so thank you we have any other Communications from other boards um I'm aware of one uh communication came in from the agricultural commission um and the what they're looking to do and this is for the board um what they're looking to do is have a um Community event on public property and as per the uh special event policy that we created uh we specifically identified that a special event um is an event that is uh a private individual or private party uh hosting uh event on public property or uh an event by a private individual on private property and we specifically did that's open to the general public and we specifically did not include um elected boards but the question has come from how what is the process for an elected or appointed board to have a Town Event um and so that's the question from the agricultural commission um if any member has any thoughts my it seems to read that the town manager um is responsible for um the use of town property and that that could be decided by the town manager but I I wanted the agricultural commission has requested kind of guidance in this area um but I want to make sure that we're all on the same page in terms of of can a board create a public event uh with the town manager and with this board or is there another process that's expected of them Mr Vice chair I would say from my mind the it's an appointed commission that represents the municipality so it is a town entity so it definitely is a you know it falls on under Town sanctioning its own event so as long as I'd like to know what the event is of course but I mean it's not a private entity the agricultural commission it's a town entity so therefore it's the town asking to do some event which I of which I'm unaware on a Town owned piece of property which should be fine I don't know that you need a special event permit but I'll withhold that until I know what the event is y all right I I is also Mr Lonzo um my read you know they're looking to have basically like a fair um you know open to the public um they they they might have a vendor they're looking to see if there's vendors who um would be willing to participate but the first step is just identifying for them how to do a Town Event um so I I concur I don't know if anyone disagrees that the correct process is for them to um reach out to the town manager with their proposed dates and verify that it's good to go and then uh come before us for anything that actually affects um you know anything within that if they want to sell alcohol they'll have to get someone with the you know to come for that and all the other good stuff Mr Vice chair yeah I mean a lot of the things that are in that policy are stuff that we would wanted they would have to ask anyway but instead of it being approved yep it's usually so yeah and I think that the way I read it it was at that first sentance private party right no I agree with you there but I mean a lot of the the part point of getting this is just setting it all up so if they're looking for the the process it wouldn't be bad for them to review it even if it's not following the policy and just working with the town manager cuz those questions are still there y all right I will give that feedback okay all right so going to our appointments uh I want to thank um all of our appointments for staying here a little bit later so we have a 7:15 continuation of public hearing a notice of intent to convert and sell from chapter 61b Lot 1 and 3 kurn Street uh vote on first R of refusal including the exercise the uh the first ride of refusal wave the first ride of refusal or assign the first ride of of refusal um the time is uh 7 looks like 36 excuse me 7:40 and I will open the public hearing um before you make a presentation councel uh I will go to the board um so where we left off on this as I recall and I need to pull up the drive where we left off in this was that we were waiting for additional information to come in uh we received that additional information uh as it related to I think it was the open space committee um but I I'll go to the board for any this should be pretty straightforward Council so I'll go to the board first for any questions comments the board may have uh on this I do have one uh we did we were waiting for a report out of the open space committee which they have now provided us uh I last week and one of the things they've requested and I think I think we asked this although except for the two words in writing we did not ask but they are asking the open space committee that the town clarify in writing with the landowner that they intend to keep the remainder of the land enrolled one of the largest parcel that it will remain in 61b yes so we're looking to release two Lots yep I do have comp I do have a plan here so there's two lots lot one and lot three and there's a remaining land um of about 81 acres and that is to remain in chapter 6 so can would you be able to provide in writing that that will be done uh yes um I can provide a copy of the plan if the um board would like that as well yeah I think we have the plan I just wanted writing that and it doesn't I'm willing to vote on it before we get that as a gentleman's agreement that you will provide that Mr Lonzo yes um for clarification um if they're not requesting for this land to be taken out of chapter it remains in chapter are you looking for some kind of guarantee that they're looking to keep it in chapter I I'm just reading from the open space committee report which says and I will read it at verbatim the first sentence it says the open space committee recommends that the town clarify in writing with the land owner that they intend to keep the remainder land enrolled in six chapter 61b yes so we're only looking for release of Lot 1 and three and the remaining land will remain in chapter 61b so they hav not indicated Mr Vice chair any they're not looking for imp perpetuity or whatever you know they just want to know that for the foreseeable future meaning you know now till you know that 3 days after we and we've already waved that one anyway so it's just it's just a a gentleman's like I said so so my client isn't looking to release they're only looking for lot one and lot three other than that I think they have provided us with the with the they promoted by a vote of five to nothing with two vac while one member was absent and one they have a vacancy to recommend waving the right of to First refusal on the lots I'm willing to proceed with that when and if it is time for a motion and so Council as I just heard you you do not object to uh following this meeting providing us and writing a statement that indicates that the owner has no intention on removing the remaining property out of 61b at this time they have no intention to yes I can provide you um in writing and um I can email it to the board wherever you would like me to send it perfect if you can provide that to the town manager uh Carter or Annie um that' be excellent all right uh any other questions related to this all right is there a motion I move that the town that the board vote to wave the right right of first refusal on lot one and lot three on the uh I don't have the address here Lot 1 and three of Kilburn Street I don't have the address 20 Kilburn yes the original uh number was 20 Kilburn okay of 20 Kilburn second any additional discussion all in favor please say I I I those oppos no all right the motion passes uh unanimously from all members present so I know that your client has been waiting patiently for us to go through our process and uh we did identify as well that excuse me open space Bas committee is not a statutory requirement but it is a requirement within the town of Lunenburg uh we are working on uh workflow improvements so that way as we go in the future and any request like this that um it will make sure that it hits all the right committees uh at the same time so that way we don't have these kind of delays where we recognize you know a month or two into the process that um a critical committee like open space uh wasn't contacted thank you Mr Jeff all right Mr V chair I to to the applicants of council uh as somebody in the law I know you know full well the delays that happen you know certainly not of uh of intent sometimes but just out of process so I appreciate you and your your client being patient while we fulfilled our process so thank you thank you Mr Alonzo all right thank you next we have um amendment to class two motor vehicle license for Chapan Motors um so while they are coming forward if they choose to so this request from Chapan as we recall um it is about language in their license so during their previous meeting with us they indicated um in the fall um or excuse me when they received the license in the course of conversation they indicated that they were not looking to retail vehicles um but we're looking to Wholesale in in some form um that Comet U was loged as being in passing and the RMV also indicates that they're looking for language on the license that says wholesale and brokerage or wholesale only um that then triggered us to identify what was needed to correct this and uh on the advice of council uh we needed to U go through the process we went through initially to issue the license so the request today is to modify uh the class 2 motor vehicle license for Chapan Motors to specifically indicate wholesale and brokering only and I will pause for um any of the chapter LS if I have that incorrectly wholesale and brokering only yes please Mike Chapan 208 lemoner Road and Mark chap Lane 102 Fairview Road you guys related I've known him all my life yes right um yes the RMV has requested that we change our class 2 license to read wholesale and brokering only only all right um and just as a correction Michael Ray it's chapal Lane Truck Center not thank you I just want to make sure what did I what did I say chapal Lan Motors I just want to make sure it's correct that way on the license on the license you have the license by chance with you because I don't in front of me and one of the things I was hoping that we were going to have but because of the change in the town managership we didn't you I want to know I want to make sure that we don't have to do this again right I want to know what the change I exactly you want added and modified so if you have it on that Annie Annie has that okay well Annie did not provide that no no we have it right here we have we do we have a letter from Town Council I brought copies of our existing I am in the folder license all I see is this yeah a letter from Town Council that's it okay yeah but it doesn't I know I'm saying we don't have it right we don't have what you're asking for right I'm going through the documents now the the first license that we have for prepared for tonight it's not the correct business it's referred to as Chapan TR trck Center Incorporated is that still accurate corre so I have a copy of the previous one so I'm going to make sure it's marked up so and and we'll have to unfortunately um we don't have the correct form tonight so we're going to have to sign it probably tomorrow that's um so as it reads it says class to a dealer license whose P um excuse me in accordance with the provisions of masteral Law chapter 140 section 58 with amendments Chaplan truck center Inc located at 199 Massachusetts Avenue is hereby issued a Class 2 auto dealer license whose principal business is the buying or selling of secondhand Motor Vehicles purchases uh and then she's crossed out secondhand Motor Vehicles for resale and transactions the business shall obtain a bond in the amount of $25,000 or equivalent or proof of financial um responsibility and so what you're looking for is language that says secondhand Motor Vehicles for resale and wholesale um and brokering only correct and we want to drop the word displays okay where it says secondhand Motor Vehicles purchases and displays we want to drop that word display because when we first approach the town um yeah we crossed off it and displays right y all right once don't you have that marked up Mr Vice chair if you could pass that down so we I'll see it y for resale in wholesale and brokering transactions doesn't need to be a comma there so you want the word transactions all right correct I accidentally crossed off transactions so I'm adding it back in all right I apologize cuz I thought this wording was already worked out and this was just going to be well it was I brought Annie a copy of our current life right which with the cor strikes and Corrections and Y and that's what we have in front of us and displays is crossed off uh in retails crossed off and then you've added in the language wholesale and brokering transactions yes okay and and and brokering is what I added in today okay okay and ises the word only have do have to say the word only does the word only have to be in it I think only has to be in it too okay wholesale and brokering only transa wholesale and brokering transactions only correct thank you so on this one I think that as this motion is made I think we need to offer a little bit of leeway um to Annie as she works with um the chapter Lanes to ensure that the language that we're intending to say today um matches so that way if there's a minor correction that needs to be made that she has the flexibility to make it you know I don't think appreciate that y you know I don't didn't agree that you guys had to come back I thought it was pretty clear the first time um but neither did we yeah but but again it was apparently in passing uh for clarity and for the record I would like to read this in its entirety with the additions and make sure you agree okay so it's recorded for some words cut off at the edge of the page that we can't see on that copy uh as you read it do you have a copy saying exactly what you want I don't Annie has it Annie has it all right I'll read the the well we're not changing the second sentence so we're only changing the first sentence so it says who principal business is the buying or selling of secondhand Motor Vehicles purchases secondhand Motor Vehicles for resale in wholesale and brokering transactions only and then it goes on to the second sentence is that it yep okay just want to make sure we get it right once because real inconvenience for you guys and it has not been on our and believe me we wish we could have done it quicker so you appreciate you can get us getting us on the agenda that quick and I did share I did share I I didn't speak with you mark but I I spoke with Mike that you know it was the advice of Town Council that wanted to point out two important things that number one that he doesn't understand the RV has the ability just like the uh just like the alcohol uh legisl regulation committee does for out liquor licenses they have the ability to tell and restrict your own licenses if we so he didn't understand why they were asking us to change it and if we needed to change it it had to be in an open meeting we couldn't just strike it out clerically and hand you a new license that would that would alter the current license and that was not allowed so I just want you guys already know I want the public to know that you know and listen we know you guys have been great businesses in this Town well before I even moved to town 26 years ago it's not because we want to hassle 5 years there you go so it's not because we want to hassle local businesses we clearly do not yes the hours of operation are also marked out the business hours or crossed off on this copy I'm sorry the business hours were changed yes I forgot about that Monday Monday to Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 7:30 to noon and then 1 to three do you want a mark yeah okay I kind of forgot about that I think that's Monday to Thursday 7:30 to noon you say and 1 to 3 1 to 3 yeah don't leave an i undotted yes we want to okay so I'll if it's okay with the board when it comes time I'll read the motion as one thing if if I may though I mean would would would it be better just to keep 730 to 3 I mean if you're running late on a lunch break you know what I mean like do you really want open that door Mike's there at 7:00 I'm usually there until 4:00 or after but they need some sort of hours yes but why why don't we just go 7:30 why don't we just go 7:30 to 3: and forget about the Gap from 12 to 1 that seems a little Superfluous doesn't mean you have to be open you you're allowed to go off open I I don't think on your hours of operation you have to tell people you have to have you can reduce your hours right you can't have this would just allow you to stay open during that time frame if you wanted to you don't have to but the day at 7:30 the day change they the day was previously Monday Friday now it's Monday to Thursday is that right we take Friday off now okay just want to make sure that's right man the life you too semi retirement all right so I'm going to change it to 7:30 a.m. to a couple hours a day each one of you both almost every Friday and Saturday all right all right Mr Lonzo do you want to make the motion I will I move that we amend or modify the ex existing Class 2 auto dealer license issued to chapal Lane truck center Inc located at 199 Massachusetts Avenue as follows sentence one after the class 2 auto dealer license heading quote whose principal business is the buying or selling of secondhand Motor Vehicles purchases secondhand Motor Vehicles for resale in wholesale and brokering transactions only the second sentence Remains the Same and then the change of the business hours the current hours will be stricken and replaced with Monday to Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. correct all right we have a motion and a second all right any additional uh discussion all right all in favor please say I I I those oppose notion pass and then verbally we've also mentioned that if if somehow there's any kind of rework here um or something minor I I thought we were understood and it wasn't in the motion but that a minor modification could be permitted without coming back before us or were we not in agreement on that well except for punctuation I mean I don't think that that's why we should have had it in advance but yeah yeah if there's a misspelling or something yeah and I don't but they they can't can't you know substantively change it right yeah yeah but we're not going to cross it out and put retail in there but if there's if a period needs to move then a period can move without coming back before us right all right thank you thank you good luck thank you all right all right okay we have completed our appointments and now we are on uh we don't have any interviews um reappointments but we do have uh we were made aware of a res ation but that will come up in the town manager report which is now so uh to the interim Town manager good evening uh my name is Carter tanini I'm the interim Town manager and will be with you five to six months uh as you work your way towards your next manager uh with regret this evening I am announcing that I've received the retirement notice from Chief of Police Thomas gaml having served the town for well more than 20 years he been in law enforcement well over 30 years uh with his last four years as chief he will be leaving us as of October 18 2024 I hope all will join me in thanking him for his service to the community and wishing him well and if you're a golfer I expect you'll see him on the links a bit more probably have to go to South Carolina though I know go to H head um I will be taking counsel from the select board members the chief of police and other appropriate parties over the coming weeks as the best way to proceed and uh we can talk more about that one-onone over the next couple of weeks um and uh certainly I did tell him I hardly got to know him you know with respect to the board committee and commission vacancy uh we unfortunately have two more resignations I'd like to recognize John Reynolds and Steve Deo I hope I'm saying that correctly for their service on the Sewer Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals respectively both have resigned this week volunteers on our many boards such as these are the lifeblood of this organization they a way to learn about and influence how we operate and the policies and projects that we develop and pursue the following is a list of current vacancies on some of our boards and commissions they're the agricultural commission the preservation agricultur architectural excuse me preservation District commission our Board of Health Capital planning committee and they are uh just beginning their cycle for fiscal 26 if I may Mr terenzini that that that there are no vacancies on the capital planning we just filled the Town M the town moderator filled the last vacancy at our meeting on Wednesday my apologies but I am glad he was able to do that yes as you enter the work time of the year thank you uh Conservation Commission cultural Council green communities committee historical commission Open Spaces committee Personnel committee Sewer Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals now if you're in the sewer district and interested in what's going on there particularly with the kinds of uh issues that Miss Bertram I hope I got that last name correct uh is speaking of let me just say that U there's just no better way to learn town government government uh to ask the questions and to influence how things are uh and many people who are at this table have started in uh these commissions and Boards interested persons can find the volunteer application on the town website complete the form and send it to the select Board office and for the board's edification I'm going to be looking to change that to a fully clickable form that can be filled out online and transmitted to directly no Printing and filling and note uh if you out there uh have any questions about these particular opportunities or you're not quite sure where your talents and interests might lie uh send us an email we'll set up time to talk with you get you connected with the right person and help you identify how you can best um utilize those talents and interests uh on behalf of the town uh we do have I think some positive news hopefully uh on the employment opportunities uh we are remaining in accepting network administrator and desk clerk at the public safety position those are both full-time 40 hours a week we do have uh I'm pleased to report uh job offers out for the uh seasonal Cemetery labor and the two positions in the assessing office uh we're getting them through the the the final Hoops of background and Cory and such um and with a little luck we hope to have them before you Monday night um the uh conservation administrative assistant and the land use director uh interviews are being conducted this week some of them were uh today there's some tomorrow and then some on Thursday uh with respect to Staffing updates I do note uh that um entering Town service at this time is not necessarily the best thing in terms of retaining and Miss Bertram has done Yan's work uh in trying to keep things going but in consultation with the Department of Public Works director uh we're pulling the position of assistant to the Sewer business manager for right now um she feels as though it really would be best to try to get that problem resolved before bringing someone in and frustrating them speaking are those Fair words to use good enough uh the mrpc has agreed to provide us with 15 hours a week of planning staff support as we try to finalize the hire of a land use director uh and the gentleman at the state who was preparing the cost estimate on doing our weights and measures inspections was on vacation so that has been uh postponed probably a week before we get that answer perhaps two uh the the uh DPW director uh Heather uh as one of her um last duties here right to the the last minute getting everything cleaned up that she could uh and um Julie have completed their review of the not the pricing proposals but the uh qualifications and submission uh the nonprice proposal on the trash and recycling services we did open those pricing proposals today and I'm meeting with Mr Bernard uh and Julie tomorrow to go through the full quantity takeoff with um our tonage and the like and I hope to be able to provide a report on that um by the following week as well I I am concerned I want to be able to get you you know your your full information on on like Thursday I really I'm not as comfortable with information coming in as late as it does I want you to I want you to have a little more time um so we'll do our best to hit these targets uh but I also showed Annie you know uh some of the select board packages in other communities where it's all one and then it goes for the the citizens can see it as well so I appreciate your forbearance over the next couple weeks as I try to learn things here uh proposals for Marshall Park designer services are due in this week and the uh Center roof project as well now we didn't receive any bids for the library solar shade project uh so I've asked Julie to go straight to the um uh State bed list and I know that sometimes they can be a little bit more but frankly at this point given Staffing and other issues I've asked her to use that as her first resource uh because even if it's a few dollars more the amount of staff time we save in her trying to or the staff trying to write an RFP advertise it evaluate it um we'll keep track on it but I really I think that that at this point in time at least is is the way to go if if I may ask sure so for the um are are you saying that we're not engaging the OSD lists and pulling off like trds and I don't think we're using it as effective as we could certainly the police chief has used it um DPW has used it uh but I think uh that um we could use it more as the first line of resource and you know if we're comfortable with the pricing we like the contractor they've been vetted by the state uh just imagine the amount of time that that saves facilities or the other department head they have to write the RFP um or ifp they Chang the terms around on me um Julie has to issue it there's a mandatory walk through we have to wait for proposals I mean you knew the day of the walkth through you weren't getting any bids cuz nobody showed up yeah so I think we can make a slightly better use of it all right and for clarification just I think not everyone knows what we're talking about I'm sorry my apologies I think for clarification what what there is is the state engages in contracts multi-year contracts with a variety of vendors and a variety of fields every year and they become available for municipalities and state agencies to hire off of those contracts and there's you know quite a grid of when you can do it what the requirements are but a lot of the times with ifbs or rfps um you know typically those are issued over 50,000 sometimes more I think in our town it's been over 10 but there is an enormous amount of leg work that goes into an ifb whereas often times you can hire directly from the contract list and circumvent what or or otherwise would be a very lengthy process well I would I would say comply with 30b while minimizing staff that's probably time because we're truthfully not circumventing it we're using a tool um and not all state contracts are everywhere in the state they might not be in you know somebody from quinsey might not be operating in Berkshire County let's say as an example uh so I'd like to see um us push a little bit more in that direction uh for the time I'm here with you anyways um I would like to say uh and thank Heather who gave me a great overall briefing as I prepared to to solo she was right here to the 11th hour I mean she had more folders uh pushing into me um I just can't thank her enough uh as to my efforts uh in addition to uh learning uh much of the various documents and uh status I attended a full team staff meeting uh last week in which I got a chance to meet most of your staff a finance team meeting as well and by the way Linda McQuade is someone I hired in another community and I look forward to working with her here again um I've had extensive conversations with the majority of your staff to date toward the Ritter building the activity center uh and I'm arranging a full tour of uh your public safety building when the now that the fire chief and police chief are both back from vacation uh I want to say thank you to the citizens and to you and to all the the staff for their patience as I learn your local procedures and practices and what driv is that on and how many different passwords do I have to do you know um so I do thank you for that um it has come to my attention that it is not possible for the general public to email the select board as a whole if you use the at ludenberg I that's an internal address it turns out so if you're outside the organization it doesn't come to you all uh so we are going to simp simply um add a little blurb on the web page that if you want to uh email the select board as a whole just send it to um uh Annie and we'll get it distribute out to you they'll still have the contacts to mail you individually if they want to mail you all individually because they really don't want it coming through to us they can do that uh but that will allow citizens to mail you all at once as a group without getting caught by this internal um device I want to uh thank member Remy for bringing that to my attention uh and then next week uh I'll as I've said I'll tell you each week I'll be here Tuesday Wednesday uh and Thursday um I've already become uh to line up some Zoom meetings for Thursday and Friday when I'm away so you know the three days will be physically here uh and then on Thursdays Fridays I'll do some emails and some zooms um try to give you all I can while retaining my own sanity all right are there any questions with any of that thank you for your patience a little bit lengthier than I would have liked all right any questions related to the interim Town manager report NOP all right uh we're going to go down our old business uh public Communications policy discussion uh as I indicated in the um public comment this evening uh I am making a motion to repeal um policy number 2.13 second right but before we vote I would like to ask the vice chair because I asked this two weeks ago and it was roundly refused uh by yourself in the chair to even discuss this so what what what is the change of heart why are we resending it now sure so as I noted in my public comment this evening um I think that there was a I mean I have to say this slowly to be careful of how I'm saying what I'm saying um we received a communication um and it was confidential in nature and uh I was simultaneously aware of um a liability to the town and the intent was to delay to allow uh the town manager and others to recognize that the potential liability to the town was serious um and that it needed to be understood and uh and in the final few weeks of the Town manager's time with us I think she understood that um and uh I think the town manager understood it so I don't I think the intent behind the policy I mean I I don't think it's bad policy generally to say that before there's a press release that goes out to the public that the select board should be made aware of it you the nature of our meetings being public that once you start discussing it in a public meeting it's not like you're withholding what you're discussing that what you are discussing um is the process excuse me what you're discussing is is the specific verbage of of how it moves forward but the topic uh certainly becomes public once the board has to discuss it um nonetheless uh I I don't I that's where I'm coming from on this I think it was uh situational um again I don't think that in general the policy is uh is is terribly bad but I think that the process um you know after learning and not being aware when we passed it but after learning um that we did violate our own policies you know I while I do believe that the board has many times violated its policies um and and can uh that it's better form to try to comply so I asked the board uh to that night when it was first proposed for a delay so that we could because it had been presented to us literally emailed to us while we were at a meeting such as this and that was the same meeting 10 minutes later that was passed I asked for what I thought was a reasonable uh delay so that the board could think about what the ramifications would be and myself uh Miss mki and the town manager all concurred that we should at least have a week that was roundly refused by the majority of the board then when I brought it up two weeks ago that we should resend it because when I went home that evening after it was passed it was a violation I was roundly refused that it was doing it now I'm hearing that we want to do it we want to ref resend it and if I'm hearing it correctly we want to resend it because the purpose it served is completed so we use the board policies to take care of a temporary situation which is more of an abuse of the policy making than passing it that night absolutely so I just don't understand you know I I hope this doesn't come up but you know what I don't have any confidence that this kind of thing won't happen again because it keeps happening uh this is not the way to judge policies this is not the way to pass them it's not a way to discuss them the openness that you just suggested is when we talk about things they're out in the open we didn't talk about anything in the open in fact the town manager chastised you for injecting the board of Selectmen in a non-board of Selectmen Authority authoritative Personnel matter that's what her words were that we we you injected yourself into a personel matter that it's clearly the jurisdiction of the Town manager you know it's just not the way to run a government and nobody has any trust or reliability in how the laws are passed or how the guidelines are passed if we do this so I'm glad to resend it I hope it never comes back as far as the content of the the the the bylaw not bylaw but the uh procedure itself or guideline itself it was way ambiguous it caused I got calls from at least four different boards and commissions saying wait a minute what can I talk about and not talk about as a public document does this really put a wrench in everything that they're going to be doing anybody who has to do public uh announcements whether it's the police department the DPW the finance committee the Board of Health anybody that can issue public announcements do they have to in an emergency or not come to the board of Selectmen it it was just and if we ever revisit this again I certainly want to hear from Town Council about what their opinion about it is as far as enforceability and how broad it is written Etc but I'm certainly happy to resend it as I wanted to two weeks ago oh Tom I want to comment on just a couple of things so you know first it has been our practice that we can't share information with one another prior to meetings um and so when we have things to share we share it you know at the very beginning typically of a meeting you know the policy that was proposed what it said um was that it excluded community events it ex excluded community services and it excluded emergency services and so it was there was a limited scope to it from the offset from my view there was a limited scope but but further than that I mean you know to repeal any policy of this board takes three members that that's it and so when we have a policy that says that you need four members for something to pass an 80% threshold that's a little atypical to begin with you know I'm not it doesn't that that rule not being aware of it prior to and now knowing it I don't know if it's it's if that's great policy in and of itself but I do agree that it's generally exceptional and if I can just ask for the gallery to be a little quieter tonight um I generally do agree that you know we are a situation you know policies should be broad um and I do believe that the policy has is BR again I've vocalized you asked me why the change of heart um I don't believe that there's any answer that I can actually give you that will satisfy you um on this topic you know but I gave you my honest answer here of why I think it should be repealed now it's not that I think the policy was poor or not that I think the policy was bad um I think the process I I concur that the process of it um wasn't the best and and further that generally speaking that it's better formed to discuss a policy over multiple meetings and get engagement from multiple people um again you know the simplest way of saying it Tom is that if we did nothing we would be looking at a $4 million lawsuit that we would likely lose and from my perspective I felt strongly that a delay to allow us to figure out liability here and for it to be universally recognized by by people making decisions would be to our benefit and it was and so I can't honestly tell you that I regret it because I don't I I know what would have happened if we didn't do it um that that there needed to be an understand understanding and and it provided enough time for that understanding to exist and and and the majority of the board again I proposed it I didn't call for the vote I didn't you know I I could have opposed it but I didn't I supported it but I mean we can keep I don't see the benefit in going back and forth in this I respect Tom your very strong opinions on this um I respect strongly you know I was also contacted by several people who were who are in total disagreement with the process um I you know even after the first meeting and before the second meeting when when you you brought it up I I'm aware that that a lot of people had a lot of problems with the way that that happened and and that the way that that occurred um ultimately I believe it was the right thing to do um but but I think it's important for us as a board to work together and and I can respect that if we have a policy that two members feel this strongly about then the best course of action is to repeal it and if we want to pursue it at a Future Point and let's pursue it at a future point and that's just where I'm at I'd like to comment briefly just for the record um I also received calls and feedback from from citizens and other members members of other boards and so on about the content the wording of the policy the process but also just the wording being too broad not knowing how to interpret it um you commented about not sharing information prior to the meeting I mean I I don't see why something like that should go to Annie to go in our Google Drive before the like like interim Town manager said ideally getting us information well in advance rather than an hour before or in this case it was literally why we're sitting in the meeting I'm refreshing my email um I put the charge for the budget task force in the drive ahead of time so I I I'm not aware that we can't I I thought we share information that's going to be discussed at a meeting so we have time to read it to think about it um that makes for a more efficient meeting um as far as the comments about previous Town manager coming around I don't know where that's coming from because in all of my conversations she was very opposed to the policy and and actually spoke to the contrary that the policy opened the the town up for potential liability so I'm hearing two completely different things and I guess I mean I know some of the confidential information but I'm guessing I don't know all of it um so I'm I'm just going to leave it there because I don't I clearly I don't I'm hearing two totally opposite stories and I don't know what anyway at the end of the day I'm glad it's being repealed because if it wasn't going to be or rescinded whatever I was going to ask for Town Council to review the board the board have to V vote for it but Town Council to review the policy because of the wording um actually there was concern that others shared with me that it that alone could open us up to some potential litigation down the road so that made me very nervous that it was pushed through like that and wasn't vetted um appropriately Renee I I I think that um I agree with you that for my perspective in the past you know when we've when a member has written a policy I believe that we should be able to share that policy well before a meeting occurs so that way every member of the board has equal access to the information the practice however has been that we have not as members been able to add to the Google Drive that has been a no I know that you have I know that we all have access no no I I I recognize Annie I I I recognize that what I'm trying to express is that is that in the past and and that that has not been the practice of us adding anything into individually to the drive of us sending it to the town manager's office and in the past when I have sent things to the town manager um to get added to the Google Drive I was advised that it cannot be distributed prior to a meeting um that it has to happen you know at the meeting and I can forward you those Communications after this meeting so that way you understand where what information that I had that I was operating off of of of how we have been just doing business and I recognize that I I I've always thought that we should do differently um but I mean that's just how we've been doing it I want I want to say that you know we work we work under a charter Our Town Works under the charter we have a town manager style Charter where the board of Selectmen according to the Charter basically for the most part is a policymaking body and it's a policy-making body which would lead one to believe that policies are important and then the passing of such policies and the consideration and evaluation and Analysis of such policies is important this process didn't follow those even though in our policies at the top I think it's the second one tells how you can make a policy and that's what we broke so we broke like a one of our top policies even though it was requested that we not do it now I do not I do not disagree agree with the vice chair that he does not regret this I that is the one thing I absolutely 100% agree with I believe that he does not regret this but it is a misuse and an abuse of that policymaking policy especially for an instance that he is editorializing information that should not be shared with the public and is certainly dubious about what the liability would be I spoke with the same people he spoke with they did not feel the same so again the important part of our Charter is that the town manager and the department heads run the town on the day-to-day operation I have believed I have said at this table on television many many times over the years I trust I have to trust the town manager I have to trust the department heads the moment that I don't trust them I'm not looking to correct them I'm looking to replace them okay and that is the problem that is the problem it is certainly within the purview and the authority in this case that it should be left to them and nothing the board should have done should have interceded with that because I disagree with the vice chair's uh interpretation or perspective that we were going to be on the hook for I don't know five $4 million that's the number that I first time I've heard that number so you know that I do not believe that is the case and the people who are involved in this do not believe that was the case so again I would reiterate everything I said and I you know I don't want to go over and over it and round and round so all right we have a motion and a second do we have any other discussion all right all in favor please say I I I those oppose no the motion passes and the policy is repealed to number two uh staff select board staff appreciation um so um I'm not quite sure uh what the chair wanted us to discuss or wanted expected me to discuss on this topic but I think that what we heard tonight um from Chris I think is representative of of what I've been hearing for a while about the uh low morale across the workforce and feeling unvalued and unappreciated um it would seem that um the I had a conversation with the chair prior to him adding this to the agenda I know that he had his own ideas about this and I was kind of looking in a different direction for different things so I don't have anything to offer on this topic tonight was any other member want to contribute to this discussion this evening I do not all right uh Town manager salary [Music] range I can say that the this will be kind of a town committee report but the capital not the capital B the town manager grey committee met last Wednesday where we interviewed uh a potential recruiting firm Community Paradigm uh who specializes in town manager searches as well as other Municipal uh employee searches I believe that if we proceed with that whether it's with them or whatever any other recruiter I think that they'll want to have a play a part and help us do a a salary range in the market for towns such as ours and so I would probably H hold off on this until it's determined which direction we're going to go if we're going to go with a recruiter or not all right man of course um we did get a request from the chair of the screening committee with some criteria that they'd like to have considered uh we advise them to go to the finance committee as soon as as possible get a transfer um to fund this and uh I have reached out to two prior communities to get uh rfps that I've used um hopefully they'll get them to us in the next day or two we can uh cut and paste as long as I remember to change the right Town names and such that that would be helpful and have it ready to go as soon as the money's in place okay we may I'm assuming uh that you would be checking with at least the chair of of the committee just as a final RFP for the description at least oh AB absolutely okay once once we get the thing cut and pasted together and modified for what we think is going on we'll send that to the committee itself oh good okay for uh review We may circulate it for individual comments depending upon timing as opposed to waiting right two weeks for a committee meeting um but absolutely it's my uh process to try to include as many user entities shareholders whatever we want to call them uh in review of these types of documents perfect thank you so if I remember right I think fincom voted on those the allocation of those funds at the last meeting they voted the transfer the reserve fund transfer yes oh okay 177,000 was that that that would be in the right Waters would no Evan if you're out um but yeah I if I think they voted on it at I'll I'll check with as he I think it was last Thursday maybe okay super we can get going faster then I haven't watched that meeting so I'll look at it too yeah oh last Thursday you think yeah I can look up the schedule see when they met that's okay we can check it I have no concept of time all right um outdoor dining policy um I don't know if if we have any proposals or actions to take on this one this evening uh you don't what I'd like to do is to take the chair's notes Andy's notes and bring you a formal policy um broken down by authority to adopt applicability what the actual policy is I'd like to make it a little bit more um and then we'll circulate that to fire chief DPW police chief uh for some comments staff comments uh and so I would say we're we're probably 3 weeks out to have it in front of you to be honest with you all right that's the bad news the good news is nobody's chopping at the bit right now right well we we passed an extension so yeah we extended the exist all right so we'll Target then um a meeting in September uh for that and you can work that out with the chair yes all right uh review arpa funding request and committed funds so um selectman imy indicated that she worked on the spreadsheet SEL iny did you get um selan newo uh said to me that he received some individual requests that didn't come to the entire board that only came to him uh I asked him to forward those to you did you receive those I did not receive them no okay that's unfortunate from which which groups do we know who the groups were I I have no idea what the communications were I think the historical somebody was it Historical Society or Village of Flat village of flath Hill I think um emailed us individually but we all I think we got it cuz I asked that's on here yeah yeah I got that cuz I asked them I said oh I was the only one on the two line did you send this to everybody and she said yes y so I again I briefly spoke with and and it wasn't even a conversation it was through text um the chair had mentioned to me um again that he had received additional requests that weren't on the list that you prepared uh and again I asked him to forward those to you yeah that would be great to have because it's August cuz it's what it's August I mean we we need to I've been pushing for 2 months we need to move on this money um I don't want to lose a nickel I'm I'm with you I was hoping that we could if we adopt the process we did last year that we could come next week with our prioritizations and ideally allocate some if not all well I mean as a again I I am I have not seen those emails I don't know if it's one I don't know if it's five I have no idea the quantity um I I do recognize that that uh the chair is in a military training environment right now um I can attempt uh not attempt I will reach out to him and um if if you have availability for to update this if I get the email I will update it and I can put it I can either send it to the inter Town manager or an Annie or I can do that as well as upload it to the Google Drive I mean um I've seen some emails from the chair but nothing about this okay does anybody on the deis know when the chair is due back cuz I I do not um I believe it is this Friday or Saturday okay all right so I think there's ample time then uh for the board if we if we receive an updated list even if that updated list came in on Friday uh you know I think that we have ample time before the next meeting to um perform the task that we did similarly and which we go down the list and prioritize uh what our priorities are um numerically is your recommendation only for us to list like the top 10 or what do you what are we suggesting I I mean if we adopt what we did last year every single we ranked everything we have to including so at the bottom of this list um the the top half are the requests we received this you know this summer this past month or so and then at the bottom are FY 25 Capital requests that were not funded so they fell below the line there's one thing um I guess it's an action item for for Carter um I think the Milo Advanced Training simulation system I think that earmark did get approved is that official can we take that so I think I saw that so we can take that off the list um so I will do that um when I update um I think since select M more wasn't here last year we maybe review um I guess the question is do we want to use one as our top priority yeah okay cuz I think did we do that yeah I thought we did a something rank it from one which is the highest priority down to what however manying every single one on every single line okay great so even though they're broken up into everything did you already um Rene did you already plug in the formulas I have the median in column P instead of the average that's why it says count divide by zero because there's no nothing in there and there's there's column for the prioritization as well as um comments if you have like if you don't want to approve you rank it but only for a portion of the money they're asking for there is um one comment I want to share with with the board because I think um it's important it was from a recommendation from Heather um when I was asking her about fy2 budget and things that weren't funded that may be appropriate for arpa and she actually had a recommendation that I think is worth passing on um she said and I'm quoting her I think you're one of Harpers so that was a request from the finance director the payroll um he requested to three years she's Heather said I think year one of Harpers could come out of the consultant services for arpa reporting line which was 60k that had been approved way back when and the balance of the 60,000 could then be used for anything needed for transitioning to a new accounting software and help from the consultant um we used during fy2 I think that was a Randy mer Mercier um yeah Randy Mercier to provide munus assistance throughout this school year so there's a line on the spreadsheet for from um director of Municipal Finance for munus consultant as well as payroll services so that three-year contract is 106 plus th000 Heather's saying we can use um year one can come out of the 60,000 that we had allocated for arpa um Administration I think was the line and then the balance of that 60,000 could cover some of the munis consultant if that makes sense and I know Ezekiel broke out the cost of year one 123 I don't remember it off the top of my head so although we have you know one point uh according to this list as currently updated and again we not noting that there are some additional revisions here uh that there's 1.12 million in request and uh at this time as far as what the remaining balance is I know that the intent is to make sure everything gets expended but what is the actual remaining balance do we know that I think it's 33,43 33 so at this point we have 313,000 to allocate um we have $1.1 million in requests and an additional 600,000 in capital requests that and an additional exactly and so what we're looking at right now is 1.7 million we have 313,000 to allocate but again there is the note that anything that's already been allocated that we don't have the guarantee will be expended um or rather under contract by some point um in the fall uh that we will reallocate to something that we can get under contract by the end of the year and I think the time to get these things under contract is this month I mean the the one big thing there's that and I know Mr V you're aware the municipal building 225 I agree I agree I am I am personally ready to pull that back yep well I mean the funds have been allocated and I mean Renee I I'll be very Frank with you you know the the the problem that we have with Municipal Building design and it's a been a couple of years is that we were gearing up we're in 2024 in 2023 we were gearing up to go to town meeting to ask for uh vote to solve this problem based on the plan that we had in front of us and what occurred that year was a tax issue um and and and we've already gone over you know kind of how that happened but you know it was clear that there was no Pathway to get anything approved at the 2023 annual town meeting and then we ran into another issue um in which an RFP for the reevaluation um wasn't published until July of 2023 and the effect of that was that the you know we weren't able to complete the tax stuff in time and so going into this year we went into this year with the awareness that similar to last year that everyone was getting hit with this outrageous tax bill right before the the town meeting and it was a question of an override um and so throwing a second override on top of it so which would have been for the debt to do the public project so the the reason for these delays have been what the money that's needed is to get a final cost estimate and a final kind of just nice P picture design of what we're asking the voters to approve and we need to be able to go to a town meeting in which it could potentially pass and I think it was pry clear that there was no path for it to pass the previous two years um we are on track to go to this year um you know I'm expecting this RFP to get published this month and so I I don't think this 225 is going to be available because these funds are absolutely needed in order to get those final numbers to the voters for next year but I hear you uh so the RFP is going to go out this month RFP will go out this month have you has the committee met the committee has not met for the majority of the year but we will be meeting at the end of August all right because the last meeting I'm aware of was November 8th it probably was November December of last year before the special town meeting correct yep the the next step in that you are correct Renee where we were at last fall was the next steps was to publish this RFP that was the next step and it was pretty clear the town manager advised that we should not go before the town at the Springtown meeting with this request and so we delayed and so there's no action for the board to take until we go before the committee so I mean the RFP documents have have existed for a year they have existed cuz I wasn't aware they were ever written there is an RFP document correct oh yeah cuz the last time the last meeting I saw I thought you guys were discussing the next meeting we'll talk about the RFP yeah no the RF the RFP is is is written Renee the RFP has not been published so the RFP documents we worked on those with the town manager I did uh in somewhere in the in of the summer beginning of the fall of uh last year um cuz I honestly don't even remember what the plan is all right so that's if you can get an update at at an upcoming select board meeting to know um cuz I I thought there was going to be one at the annual town meeting in your apps even though you weren't there I thought someone the request was to pass it over by no just an update to give an update on on and and I'm letting know the request there was a we had it on the U agenda for the fall La the special town meeting the moderator because the length of the meeting asked us to pass it over um and then uh we were anticipating to go before the spring as well um so so my understanding is we're going to get a confirmation from the chair upon his return that we have all of the oper requests and that select woman empy is going to coate them and put them in here and it can be shared with the whole board because email the board when it's when the update is in the drive and that can be shared because it's just a coalation of things it's not it's not an editorial at all it's just listing all the emails in one place right yep okay and then if that happens we're going to rank them hopefully for next Tuesday come to the next meeting with our well what we did last year right was we sent all our all of our individual rankings individually to the chair who then compiled them yep will Caesar be able to do that I don't know only Caesar will be able to say nobody on this board does it matter does it have to be the chair I mean I'll collect them and colate them I don't care I mean I've been living in spread sheets lately so it doesn't matter to me my my priority is to get going on this that's my priority I mean we just passed a $938,000 override I don't want to see a nickel of this money get lost that would make me so sick well I mean there is there are some positives here right I mean you know when when you look when you look down at some of the things that are in this Capital plan um and and even the things that aren't in the capital plan that there are always things that the town can spend money on um and I think the probability of uh you know maybe there might be a dollar maybe there might be five things end up getting rounded um but in my view that there's no possible way that we're going to end this year and not have all of this money under agreement in some form and and and I'm with you um on everything you know I think we need to identify that date is that's the cut off date I don't agree it should be August I think it should probably be somewhere in October um but I think that there needs to be a date where anything that's already been allocated if not under agreement we need to have our backup list of what we can quickly get under agreement in the course of 30 45 days so that way it occurs by the end of the fiscal or excuse me calendar year but I think we're on the same page here and I get your frustration it's always frustrating when you have a you know especially as you you come back to the building thing um it is frustrating to the members of the building committee uh that we have worked and worked hard to get to a point and then because of what we perceive to be um staff errors uh that we can't move forward on on anything that we've worked on um so I get it I get it any other discussion tonight on arpa funding request and committed funds man Mr of course um I do get concerned about this word committed because if something goes wrong you don't get to recapture those monies correct and reprogram them so so to the extent you can prioritize projects that you're pretty comfortable can actually have the funds fully expended and you may be in a position where you end up doing something you would have rather done this but for certain this money could be spent so I would ask you to keep that in mind um also we've talked about staff morale and recruiting here tonight and I see some items that are chairs for the meeting room you know you call up WB Mason they roll a half a dozen in you pick the one you want you sign the purchase order and it's not quite that simple but pretty straight forward um tree removal not hard to do so there are some projects here that um I would just ask you to think both in terms of Staff morale if you want to spread some of the money around I see a number of things from the Historical Society but I also see some lowcost ticket items they could get done for certain mhm you could show them you appreciate their efforts but you know keep it nominal so I would just ask you to think about sort of overall game plan y um with an eye towards trying to make sure we get as much expended not just just committed by the end of the year yeah that's a good point because what after December 31st if we had allocated funds towards some project that oh that's we can't do it it's came in way too high we can't move those funds anywhere else not as I understand the statute no yeah that's true yeah that's that's why it's got to be from what I understand from Heather it's got to be contracted and anything to my mind that's not contracted all those things that Carter just said yeah uh that that we should have available to spend cuz they're going to things that aren't going to hit the list but we should have them held close to us anything that's not under contract by mid November we should start just getting getting the the the the ones that can be easily attained right away I'm not I don't want to have a meeting before Christmas deciding that you know what we have $100,000 that we had a contract fall through or something that's not what we want we want to make sure everything is out there there and I'd rather have a month of respit and like oh we got through than two days of craziness trying to get something do through on the last week of December I agree all right anything else on should we send them to Caesar when we're done or do we decide who's going to collect the prioritizations and make the master I have no problem sending it to a a member as long as it's only a member it can only be a member right what would the board suggest I mean Rene you seem like you're itching I don't know I mean I'm willing to do I I it's hard because Caesar's not here so we don't I don't want to commit him in his I don't know when he's when he's back and if he would have time to do it um if you're willing to do it Renee maybe we just go that route just because he's not here we can't I'm willing to do that for the expedian sake sure and just to be clear once it's all collated it can go in the drive correct no not not with the scores because that'll that'll tip off people that'll be after that'll be an open discussion what Tom's saying is is concurring with what I said earlier where our practice has been that once you have something that could be an opinion that we have not shared that prior to a meeting um and so typically the chair would need to hold that until the meeting or you can hold it until or you can hold it until me but you won't be able to share everybody's prioritization before the meeting that would not the drive at the at the meeting correct okay yep even though it's done and locked correct no one can correct nobody should be able to see it until the meeting okay okay all right so I think that what we're saying is that we're going to send all of our rollups to Renee that Renee will roll them up um and that they will be distributed um you know generally the practice has been 5 minutes before the meeting so you can email them or drop them in the drive right before the meeting Mr Vice chair at your discretion somebody has their hand up so Paula please I always refer to former select board members as Selectmen but I know you have a new title as well um thank you Mr chair Vice chair I'm here um on behalf of the Sewer Commission about our oper requests um and I want to thank um selectman Emy for her comments because the consultant is not something we budgeted for it's not something we don't have any input into the mun software we did not budget for Consulting um so I certainly hope that the funding for the consultant is spread to all Town departments that are affected by this software um I also think funding for financial financial accounting is important whether or not it can be done prior to the deadline I don't know um but I also want to comment on our request for manhole funding I finished the irfp a couple weeks ago uh for the manholes unfortunately it hasn't been able to be um done prior because of all the time I spend on munice problems um but I have completed it we had the inspections done um so our My Hope Is it's before um bill right now to review it um and my hope is we can get it to um the procurement officer before the end of the week and go out for bid um so I certainly want to keep that funding available um it's very clear that inii is a significant problem in town um we are seeing because of the rain we had several months ago we're seeing astronomical costs to the city of fitzburg and the City of lemonster um as you all know we have lost funding um we've not been able to do demands um so we've lost funding um in the area of $9,700 to the Enterprise fund because of the software problems um so I would just wanted to let you know that we are moving forward with the manhole RFP ifb um and expect that it will be contracted by November so thank you thank you just one comment to address um ezekiel's did did mention that the Consultants would go towards SE sewer Utility Billing was included so maybe you want to to him thank thank you all right any other conversation on uh arpa all right sounds like we have a good plan forward um so draft Financial policy manual and briefly speaking with the town manager it seems as if the next steps or part of the process there is to float this through um other boards and committees and staff for feedback uh and so that will be ongoing and hopefully we'll get an update in the month or next month and I understand that the board committee handbook is in the same um process is that correct that is correct the um document we sent you for review today however is frankly my priority um and so I'd like to send these out staged uh so that you can focus on one and clear the deck on that and then we'll get the next one out that' be helpful what would also be ideal is you know we really rely on the drive for all documentation uh everything to be in the drive so if you can just have Annie add them to the drive not just email uh so that way we can just pull it up from the drive sure all right I'm still learning where that is we can get that done he has multiple drives in y yes all right um all right let's go on to current business business uh I don't have any minutes in front of us uh would you mind handing me the warrants so we do we do have we going have a discussion uh with the staff about the minutes uh yesterday um I expressed my desire that we get no less than two a week done I can live with that given the other workload that's going on and we'll follow up that conversation uh tomorrow as well all right good okay all right and I I all right we have a couple things to sign so we'll just go through them all we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $8,700 and excuse me 67 cents we have another accounts payable warrant in the amount of 3 39,821 um we have some letters to sign uh for for members who have resigned uh including uh Susan Andrews from the Personnel committee uh Anna Lockwood from The Parks Commission uh John Reynolds from the Sewer Commission uh Steve Dubois from the zoning board of appeals however uh these require the signature of the chair and so they will need to wait and then we have additional documents that we previously agreed to that we need to sign in person so one is the inter Municipal agreement for the Wastewater collection treatment and Disposal between city of Lemer town of Lunenburg um Mass all right so we have it looks like Rene signature up here but we need the rest of the board we previously approved this uh I will pass that down we also have the lease for the teen center um that we previously approved and I will sign and send this down and thanks San m key also for signing that one and then we also I think we have a uh two true copies of the lease actually um and so let me sign both all right all right and I'm sending them in the folder have any other documents to sign this evening I'm not sure what all right what we got here okay so the only thing is tomorrow if members if Annie can jump on this class two for Colonial Motors uh I I think she accidentally printed this off cuz this was what should have been the chapter Lane um so if members can make themselves available if you can if you can have any notif us of when that's corrected and when the chap to Lane um Auto LIC is available that way members can come in uh over the next are are at least three of us available over the next day or two to come in yeah I can come in early before I go to work what time not how late on Thursday um which I definitely can't do tomorrow yeah Thursday is uh 6:00 p.m. THS I might be able to make it in by Thursday and 8: a.m. I'm usually back in town by 6 I can do my best to try to get here a little earlier can you find out if we can do them digitally I was going to suggest that okay thank you keys to the build let me know and I'll I'll sign at the same time okay all right oh done okay you guys just work that out you and Tom all right Perfect all right so warrants are done any action items this evening uh I I I want to put an agenda item but I I I'll talk to Carter after this meeting um okay okay um committee reports yes I have um couple so budget task force met last night it was our third meeting um our chair um Tony scol brini Jr uh has set out his schedule every two weeks we meet and he has topics laid out last night's discussion was about revenues sources of revenues in town um and I I want to shout out to our uh town finance director Ezekiel he um he was emailing me on Saturday pulling out data helping with slides so he was working on the weekend um so we had I think a really good discussion um last night and found a couple of things that we're going to follow up on and the next meeting in two weeks the topic is um expenditures um oblig obligatory uh expenditure specifically so that's moving on um and then School commit is meeting tomorrow in their agenda has a draft FY 26 to FY 35 Capital plan so that should be an interesting um meeting and I think that's it yes last Wednesday there I had two meetings so we had the town manager screening Committee of which there were two uh agenda items one we heard from former Town manager now former Town manager about what we should be looking for in the position what are the areas of town that we should be focusing on which ones are okay you know basically just a a a leaving perspective on where we are and where we should be going in her eyes uh and a little bit discussion about the recruitment firm and that was the second agenda item was an interview SL discussion with the recruitment firm of community Paradigm uh the two gentlemen representing them uh Bernie Lynch is the is the co-founder I think they're both co-founders but Bernie Lynch is the CEO and um I can't remember the other gentleman's name unfortunately John petran John petran thank you thank you all right uh they were both excellent and they they brought a good perspective of and they have a long history of doing these kind of searches so it was really as somebody who was on the fence about whether I I thought it would be beneficial and prudent to spend the money to find him at the end of that I did come to that conclusion they have done over a 100 placements over the last eight years of town managers uh many in this area across the state but many in North Central Mass which is uh interesting lots and lots of experience both of the gentlemen have been Town managers as well as and and before founding this company so lots of experience very well spoken lots of background so it was a great discussion after that we had the capital planning committee where we're getting a much earlier start than usual this is like our third meeting this year uh and we discussed basically the schedule going forward and we're going to try to get an earlier start to the department presentations so that if there are any questions in the past we've gotten questions the presentations have been so late that we don't always get answers back before we have to make the end of the year decision we're trying to push that up forward and try to get the more complex ones up FR front uh and the ones that are more uh regular like the police and fire have more regular Capital requests because they're lot lot of De cycle uh vehicle rotation Etc we're going to push them out because we have fewer questions and that's where we are with that talking about scoring and how it would come so we're trying to set the schedule and get done by mid November and give ourselves like three weeks extra time should anything arise thank you Mr right shair all right um the master plan steering committee is not meeting again until October um but from the e Economic Development Committee just wanted to again mention the second annual Town official meet and greet will be held Thursday September 26th at 5:30 p.m. at Low Places Ranch and we hope to see you all there all right thank you all right upcoming meeting and events we have um meeting scheduled on August the 13th uh August the 20th and then we will be breaking until uh the day after Labor Day and as noted earlier um the chair of the board will be back at the end of this week um from his military training I believe he is in the woods of New Jersey all right do we have any public comments this evening from the town manager uh none Mr chairman all right well thank you so much for being here with us um all right any public comments from the public Mr pasos thank you daveo oh U we can't hear you quite yet I have to ask the booth to unmute you he's on me I think he's just quiet okay can you hear me can't hear you Dave this happened last night we couldn't hear him all right can you uh be back no unfortunately Dave we we can't hear you in the room okay they can wait uh can is the booth able to uh work on this the audio all right Dave there they're saying that the sound is on in the room and that it may be on your end so we're going to go to another public comment um I may Mr chair Dave if you want to call in on the phone while we have the other public comment that'll give you some time to call in by phone yeah all right I think I found it can you hear me now yes and we can just ask the boo to turn it up just a little bit Dave yeah I I'm not sure why but my microphone got turned down on the computer I had it way up uh Dave CIO 56 Whiting Street um my comment this evening is again uh is a couple of your members have expressed their concerns about the Opera money um we going to stop kicking this thing down the road you've been playing around with this for over a year and every every week I hear well we're going to do this we're going to do that we're going to change this we're going to change that we've uh pulled back allocations we've reallocated uh the one thing I do want to mention is that I've heard uh from reliable sources that a couple of your allocations um to entities outside of the town uh have made comments to me that they've been able to uh secure grants to cover part of what they had planned to pay for through ARA money and the comment was made we may be able to turn some money back and you know I suggested to them that they ought to reach out to you because that has to be figured out before we get to the end of the year or as you know if they say well we didn't use it all then we lose it uh that's it for this evening thank you thank you Mr Passos Mr Burton and George Burton 39 Courtland Circle thank you had a question for you um Tom manager intern Tom manager was there a reason um or I guess first was um when Mr Gamal gave his notice of of resignation if can you share that all questions have to be address to the board Mr Burton so Mr Burton as you're aware this is a public comment and we can uh read his letter of resignation I think this was a planned retirement that that Mr gaml had mentioned for the last couple of years planned it's kind of interesting that he became a chief he came to the president of the association when he knew he was going to retire a little kind of interesting well I mean people people plan their retirements that kind of puts an association in a bad step right he's L for less than a year but um anyways I was just kind of curious about that and uh that that so you can read his Mr gaml communicated with me personally a couple of years ago that he was working on towards retirement and that it was going to be in a couple of years you personally told me last year that you hated the guy and that he was I never said that to you George you did too tell me that so don't tell me you didn't Mr Jeff you've lost your soul and one question for you maybe you can answer this are you are you thinking about stepping down George any other public comments that's my comment thank you all right do we have any other public comments this evening thank you uh John bow 162 Highland Street um my I just want to say thank you for resenting that rule I think that that is a uh that that policy rule was just out of line I don't even know where to begin with that one I just want to say thank you very much for for sending that and I can understand the concerns everybody was getting from boards is what can I say what could I do what could I print what could I not print I mean that's stifling of censorship and this board should never ever censor anything from an employ of this town that your Charter gives Authority ever ever that being said my only concern is uh as well as every member in this board has run for an office in this town and not one of you have told us what political party you belong to or what direction that you believe so I took it upon myself to look your voter registration up but I'm not going to comment on that you could provide that to us when you're ready um but it would be good for you to tell the public because the public would like to know um most people in this town I find uh undecided in what party they actually belong to if you go through the voter roles most of them are undecided it's pretty sad when there's no loyalty to anyone direction that is pretty pathetic lastly I'd like to mention the hiring of Brena woods and the recent resignation of which I received in my email my son's with me today and he attends lunenberg High School uh she taught kindergarten the first graders in B Raa uh in kindergarteners she taught these children behind the school's back CRT White Privilege as well as a you know uh insisting that you know math be gender neutral of some sort you know instead of saying uh the boy five boys went here we say five people or whatever the cases I find this to be pretty pathetic my concern is this where was the vetting from our superintend of schools where is it where was it did she look at the social media posts go to turtle boy and see what he posted he posted all her social media posts was she vetted by our superintendent before being hired we just gave $983,000 to the school did we not to hire people correct what are we hiring you need to supervise that school that school needs to be supervised the vetting process was improper that being said just a lack of looking at what social media she posts is a failure on the superintendent Po and I'm not the only one in this town that's appalled to that hiring and let alone we don't most of us don't believe that that was a resignation we believe that it was probably shouldn't and as far as the $4 million you were talking about Mr Jeff with regard to that policy my other concern is this if somebody did something wrong that's going to cost this town $4 million and it has to do with the action of a town employee or anything Justice speaks and Justice is heard in a court not by a political board the court is the one that makes the decision about whether or not this town gets sued or it doesn't get sued whether it's liable or non-liable not a political board and that's all I'd like to say thank you than you thank you do we have any other public comments this evening from the public all right public comments from the board uh just two first uh I don't usually make it a habit to answer questions but I will say that it my enrollment in a party has been proudly and always unenrolled uh I would enroll an independent but you don't in massachusett it's not independent it's called unenrolled Uh I always remark to myself how for a country who prides itself on Independence very few people at the state and federal level will vote for Independence which is always an ironic thing to me but anyway proudly that second of all the your comments uh regarding the school I will would say that should be directed to the school committee because this board has zero literally zero oversight of the school committee they are uh a duly elected body that take care of by state law the whole purview of the school department and ground so if you have comments uh of that nature I would recommend that you bring that up with them if especially if they're meeting tomorrow so thank you thank you Mr Vice chair thank you do I have any other public comments from the board all right I'll offer just a couple I want to Echo what Mr Lon just said about the school um I also you know do want to respond succinctly to two other statements that were made um the town manager evaluation um we have historically been late doing the evaluation every single year uh this year in particular uh the town manager outlined a revised schedule for how we were going to go about doing the evaluation um I had sent out the evaluation to all members of the board asked them to schedule meetings with the town manager during the first week of June um the town manager submitted her resignation that week and not schedule um those meetings and the evaluation process was stopped the first part of that process is a self-evaluation from the town manager uh in which we receive that self- evaluation and then you know do our own uh and that was never never received and then you know there was another comment and you know I I haven't said this um in all the previous requests from Mr burden but I will be a little more specific with you today George uh the the when you and I um briefly met um on Christmas Eve in 2022 what I offer to at that time uh was that I had worked with um through first realy management not a company that I own but that I worked with first realy management for a while um and that through them I'd worked with u Mike Merill and Rita Lynch Merill and Lynch uh and that in working with them that Mike Merill was someone in the 80s who helped create the condo laws and worked with him that him and Rita had one of the Premier law firms uh in Massachusetts and in that moment I of trying to assist you I encourage you at that time to reach out to them um and that they could be a resource that they fully understood condo law I have stated several times I will say it again uh I have no awareness of who this Law Firm is I think you were provided with the letter that said that there was no awareness uh I I recognize that I will continue to hear that you heard that this Law Firm represents me and I will and I recognize that you believe that um however it it again it just isn't true um all right and that's all that I have for board comments this evening is there a motion to adjourn so move second any additional discussion all in favor please say I I those oppose no the motion passes the time is now 9:16 uh and the motion is uh the meeting is adjourned have a wonderful evening that was a short meeting what happened there